Page 54 of One Bad Idea

Chapter 21

Sitting in the quiet restaurant, I took a deep breath and just asked what I'd been dying to know. "That thing last Monday – what was that about?"

Jaden said, "What thing?"

"Oh come on, you know what. At my apartment, there I am, outside talking with Stuart whenyoushow up – out of nowhere, I might add – and scare him off."

"Was that a problem?"

I studied his face. Weird, he looked genuinely curious.

And, as far as his question, I didn't have a good answer. Finally, I murmured, "Well, itwasstrange."

"Yeah? You wanna know what's more strange?"

"What?"

"Him. Calling the cops for something he could've handled himself."

Now, I didn't know what to say. Obviously, he was referring to the fact that Stuart had reported me to the police.

"Yeah, well, I didn'tknowhe actually called them. I mean, hethreatenedto, but I thought he was bluffing."

Jaden gave a low scoff. "No, you didn't."

"Oh, so now you're a mind reader?"

"I don't need to be," he said. "It was obvious."

"By what?"

"Your face."

Feeling suddenly self-conscious, I reached up to touch the side of my cheek. My skin felt excessively warm, but that was completely irrelevant. "What about it?" I asked.

"I'm not talkingnow," he said. "I'm talking when you showed up at the house. You kept looking at the truck, like you were waiting for trouble."

"I did not," I protested.

"And," he said, "once you got inside, you kept looking toward the front door, like you were waiting for the swat team to bust through it."

I tried to scoff. "No, I wasn't."

"And," he continued, "you looked scared shitless."

Okay, now that was just plain insulting."I wasn't scared," I told him. "I was annoyed."

"Yeah." Again, he looked ready to laugh. "Withme."

Whatever the joke was, I didn't get it. I gave a hard nod. "Exactly."

"But me, youweren'tscared of."

It was simple statement. And it was true. Ihadn'tbeen scared of him. I'd even marched into his house and – my face suddenly felt a few degrees warmer – destroyed his lunch, too.

But he totally had it coming. And plus, I'd been too annoyed to be scared.

Across from me, Jaden said, "It was a dick move."